
Major- General Arthur St. Clair 



A BRIEF SKETCH 

\ 

BY 

ARDA BATES RORISON 

n 

AND 

JOHN NEWTON BOUCHER 



A more extensive Life of General St. Clair, illustrated, (now in 
preparation by the above authors,) will soon be published 



5Vf/P 



Major-General Arthur St. Clair. 



PARENTAGE : EARLY YEARS. 

"I hold that no man has a right to withhold his services 
when his country needs them. Be the sacrifice ever so great, 
it must be yielded upon the altar of patriotism." 

That these were not idle words but a deep felt conviction 
on the part of St. Clair, when he left his home and family to 
enter the Revolution, his whole life is replete with indispu- 
table testimony. To refresh in the memory of the reader a 
few incidents in the life of this heroic character, is the object 
of this brief sketch. 

Arthur St. Clair was the son of William and Margaret 
(Balfour) St. Clair and was born at Thurso Castle, in Scot- 
land, on March 23rd, 1734, old style. His family was of Nor- 
man origin and became one of the most noted in British 
history. In the line of his ancestry were knights, earls, lords 
and dukes, many of whom had battled for English and Scotch 
supremacy, and whose names have been preserved for cen- 
turies in the poetic and legendary lore of English story. 



— 2— 

Many poets sang of their illustrious deeds and the sweetest 
singer of them all tells in "The Song of Harold" how the 
Orcades, were once held under the princely sway of the St. 
Clairs : 

"Then from his seat, with lofty air, 
Rose Harold, bard of brave St. Clair; 
St. Clair, who, feasting with Lord Home, 
Had with that lord to battle come. 
Harold was born where restless seas 
Howl round the storm-swept Orcades; 
Where once St. Clair held- princely sway 
O'er isle and islet, strait and bay; 
Still nods their palace to its fall, 
Thy pride and sorrow, fair Kirkwall." 

By the reverses of fortune on the part of their immediate 
forbears, his parents had lost their extensive ancestral pos- 
sessions and at the time of his birth were without great in- 
fluence at the court of St. James or in Scotland. The rem- 
nant of the original estate once held by William St. Clair was 
moreover entailed by the laws of primogeniture, so that 
Arthur, the youngest son, could not hope to inherit a part 
of the encumbered possessions. His education therefore was 
lo fit him for a profession and in early manhood he entered 
the University of Edinburg, intending later to take up the 
study of medicine. On the death of William St. Clair, the 
young student removed to London, that he might have the 
benefit of a hospital practice in the world's greatest metrop- 
olis. There he entered the ofBce of Dr. William Hunter, then 
regarded as one of the first physicians of the city. 



Tronsf erred from 
'..ibr'jrioo's \iff\r.f>. 
26 0CT19»P 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. 

But about that time a war broke out between England 
and France, the American part of which is known as the 
French and Indian War. Murray, Monckton and the brave 
romantic young Englishman, General James Wolfe, were 
raising an army to carry the war against the French on the 
St. Lawrence river in Canada, the whole of which was then 
under the dominion of Louis the XV. William Pitt had suc- 
ceeded the weak Duke of New Castle as premier of England, 
and almost the first work of his great administration, was to 
inspire the young Briton with faith in the new ministry. 
War was shaking both Europe and America. The streets of 
London were filled with the sound of the bugle and the 
measured tread of the grenadiers. Energetic young men from 
every calling in life, were anxious to abandon their pursuits 
and enlist in the service of the crown. St. Clair, like many 
other talented youths, could not resist. His mother having 
died the year previous, upon securing an ensign's commission, 
dated May 13, 1757, he sailed for America with Admiral Ed- 
ward Boscawen's fleet, the same which brought to our shores 
the historic army of General John Forbes. He was in the 
army of General Jeffrey Amherst, whose object was the cap- 
ture of the strong-holds on the St. Lawrence, and in the 
division of the army that was commanded by General James 
Wolfe. His first experience in battle was therefore at the 
defeat at Louisburg, Canada, in 1758. On April 17, 1759, he 
was made a lieutenant and held that rank when the army to 
which he was attached, engaged in one of the most daring 
and romantic military expeditions in American history. He 
was with the army when under the cover of darkness, it 
silently floated down the St. Lawrence and landed under the 
shadowy Heights of Abraham, since known as Wolfe's Cove. 



— 4— 

He heard Wolfe repeat the "Elegy in a Country Church- 
yard/' which the poet Thomas Gray had just published to the 
world, of which the General said he would rather be the 
author than to take Quebec : 

"The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, 
The low'ng herd winds slowly o'er the lea, 
The plowman homeward plods his weary way, 
And leaves the world to darkness and to me." 

He was with them, too, when they clambered up the 
hitherto impossible Heights, and was near the brave young 
Englishman when he received his death wound ; when the 
shout of victory recalled for a moment his departing spirit, 
and was with him when he died with the song of battle on 
his lips at the very moment of success. 

"The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power. 
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave. 
Await alike the inevitable hour. 
The paths of glory lead but to the grave." 

More than this, to add to his superior military training, 
he was with the Sixtieth Royal American Regiment, which 
had been organized by the Duke of Cumberland for services 
in the Colonies, and in the same battalion was Charles Law- 
rence, Robert Monckton, James Murray and Henry Bouquet, 
names without whose brave deeds the French and Indian 
War would be tame indeed. 

When Quebec was captured from the French the fortress 
was garrisoned by the English, and St. Clair, among other 
young officers, remained with the army. After a few months 



— 5— 

occupation, a part of the Sixtieth Regiment was sent to Bos- 
ton. St. Clair accompanied them, bearing letters and docu- 
ments for General Thomas Gage, his kinsman. While sta- 
tioned there he became acquainted with Phoebe Bayard with 
whom he was united in marriage at Trinity Church, Boston, 
on. May 15, 1760, by the rector, Rev. William Hooper. Phoebe 
Bayard, born in 1733, was the daughter of Balthazar Bayard 
and Mary Bowdoin, who was a half-sister of Governor James 
Bowdoin, of Massachusetts. With his wife St. Clair received 
a legacy of about 14,000 pounds, indeed a princely fortune, as 
fortunes were in those days. 

Their social standing opened to them every avenue of 
cultured association in Boston. His wife was related to the 
foremost families of that city and of New York, the Win- 
throps. Jays, Verplancks, and Stuyvesants and St. Clairs own 
coimection with General Gage, the commandant of Boston, 
added military luster to their prospective future. 

The French and Indian War was terminated in 1764, but 
after the victory at Quebec the English army had not been so 
active and St. Clair resigned his lieutenancy in 1762. For a 
few years they remained in Boston and with their position, 
a life of afifluence either there or in Scotland, was easily with- 
in his grasp. But the same spirit which prompted him to 
turn his back upon the culture of his native land, pushed him 
westward, and as early as 1765, a military permit to a tract of 
land near Fort Pitt, now Pittsburg, was granted to him by 
General Gage. 

IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA. 

For years after the French were expelled from the Ohio 
V^^illey, by General John Forbes, the English Government, 
and later the Proprietories of Pennsylvania, were compelled 



— 6- 



to garrison Fort Pitt and keep up a road and a line of forts 
connecting it with the east. St. Clair was accordingly in 
command of Fort Ligonier in 1767, and from that time on, 
was a citizen of Western Pennsylvania, first in a military 
capacity and later as agent of the Penns and as a private 
citizen. 

Cumberland was then the most western county and he 
was appointed a justice of that county for its western dis- 
tricts. In 1770 when Bedford county was formed, he was 
given the same position and was also appointed the first pro- 
thonotary and clerk of courts of the new county. 

But by this time Pittsburg was building up and the country 
between the Ohio and the Allegheny mountains, along the 
Forbes Road, was rapidly being settled. St. Clair, who 
vigilently watched the interests of the Penns, readily saw 
that what the western section needed most was the formation 
of a county west of the Allegheny mountains. To this he 
bent his energies in 1771 and 1772, and in February, 1773, 
succeeded in the formation of Westmoreland county. It in- 
cluded Pittsburg, but its temporary county seat was at Han- 
nastown, about 30 miles to the east. Again he was appointed 
prothonotary and clerk of courts of the new county. By this 
time he and his family had located near old Fort Ligonier, 
where he owned large tracts of land and from which place, 
nearly all of his extensive correspondence with the Penns 
iind others, is dated, . . 

St. Clair, owing to his thorough education, to his mili- 
tary service under the romantic Wolfe and to his wealth, 
Vi'as easily the most prominent man west of the Allegheny 
mountains. In the almost constant warfare with the Indians 
he was looked to by the pioneers not only for protection in 



their home defenses but to plead their cause before the Pro- 
prietories for assistance in building roads, forts and block- 
houses, and in patrolling the entire district with regular sol- 
diers or with armed militia. 



IN DUNMORE'S WAR. 

When added to this constant danger from Indian out- 
breaks, came Dunmore's War in 1774, all turned to St. Clair 
as the one above all others who should take charge of the 
home forces and also of the troops of the Province in defend- 
ing this section from the invading enemy. But to under- 
stand thoroughly his work in this war it will be necessary 
to go back a few years, and look into its cause. 

All of Western Pennsylvania was then claimed by Vir- 
ginia, and, though the claim had really no foundation in fact, 
the Old Dominion exercised almost complete civic jurisdic- 
tion over it for some years. The grant by Charles II to 
William Penn, was to extend five degrees west from the Dela- 
ware river, and thence north to the waters of Lake Erie. 
This five degree line had never been surveyed, and the Vir- 
ginia authorities claimed that it would not extend west of the 
Allegheny mountains, or not as far at most, as the Monon- 
gahela and Allegheny rivers, either of which would make a 
natural western boundary for Pennsylvania. It is true that 
in 1767, Jeremiah Mason and Samuel Dixon, two English 
surveyors, had been authorized to survey and determine the 
boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania. As a re- 
sult of their work Mason and Dixon's line was definitely and 
irrevocably determined, and it has preserved their names in 
American history for all time, But their jurisdiction did not 



— 8— 

extend west of the western point of Maryland, and in reality, 
settled nothing beyond the boundary of that state. 

The reader will remember, too, that in the long- contest 
of the English and American armies to expel the French from 
Western Pennsylvania, begun by Washington under Gover- 
nor Dinwiddie and later carried on by Generals Edward Brad- 
dock and John Forbes, Virginia had battled most royally, and 
had in truth furnished more men and money than Pennsyl- 
vania, though the point of contention lay nominally within 
the Province of the Penns. On several occasions when the 
Penns were asked to contribute their share in soldiers and in 
money, to expel the French from the Ohio Valley, they re- 
fused the assistance and gave as a reason, that they were not 
certain that the section held by the French, was within their 
territory. In the meantime many citizens of Virginia had set- 
tled near the Fork of the Ohio, (Pittsburg) supposing that 
they were still within the boundary of the Old Dominion. 

After the passage of the Stamp Act and kindred legisla- 
tion on the part of the English Parliament, both Massa- 
chusetts and Virginia manifested great hostility toward Eng- 
land. Perhaps to chastise the Virginians for their insolence, 
John Murray, known in history as the Earl of Dunmore, was 
appointed governor of Virginia. He proved to be a most 
cruel and selfish man. Bancroft says of him, "No royal gov- 
ernor showed more rapacity in the use of official power." In 
June, 1774, he sent an army to Western Pennsylvania under 
John Connolly, his object being to conquer and humiliate its 
people. Both the commander and his soldiers were without 
character. They rode rough-shod over the rights of the peo- 
ple ; they burned the farmers houses and fences ; they wanton- 
ly shot down and destroyed live stock; they subsisted entirely 
by stealing; they broke open houses in the night time and 



— 9- 

frightened the inmates; they arrested three judges as they 
sat on the bench and sent them in irons to Staunton, Virginia, 
for trial. They broke open the jail at Hannastown and liber- 
ated its prisoners ; they arrested prominent citizens and im- 
prisoned them in Fort Pitt, the name of which they changed 
to Fort Dunmore. They named the region West Augusta 
County of Virginia and set up Virginia courts in Pittsburg 
and elsewhere. Citizens of Western Pennsylvania were elect- 
ed to and actually sat as members of the Virginia Legislature. 

It was Arthur St. Clair to whom the people turned as 
their leader, in this reign of terror. In one of his letters to 
Governor Penn he says that in riding over the country a dis- 
tance of twenty miles, that morning, he saw more than one 
hundred families with more than two thousand head of live 
stock, on the highways, fleeing from their homes to forts for 
safety or to their old homes in the east, leaving their harvests 
ungathered, and deserting their log cabins because of these 
outrages. 

St. Clair undoubtedly foresaw this approaching danger, 
and to lay claim to it by extending civic dominion over this 
section on the part of Pennsylvania, was one reason for urg- 
ing the formation of Westmoreland county. While the 
Penns entrusted the management of their local affairs entire- 
ly to him. they gave him but little aid in the Virginia troubles. 
Dunmore saw that but for St. Clair he could easily effect a 
conquest. He therefore demanded of the Penns that St. Clair 
be delivered over to Virginia authorities. They refused this 
and furthrmore intimated that they would hold themselves 
responsible for all of St. Clair's acts. His prominence and 
character gave weight to his advice. He rode day and night 
urging the people to arm themselves for self-defense. As 
rapidly as possible he org'anized militia companies, he drilled 



—10— 

them and personally guaranteed them pay for their assistance. 
These were called rangers and were posted at stations all 
the way from the mountains to the Ohio river. He super- 
vised the building of a chain of blockhouses and forts along 
the rivers and on the Forbes Road, and supplied them at his 
own expense. All these matters were reported to the Peans 
by St. Clair, and his modest correspondence is the basis of 
all history yet written on the subject. 

St. Clair had Connolly arrested and put in jail, but he 
was promptly bailed out. Later, he with a company of 
militia, arrested him again, meaning this time to send him in 
irons to Philadelphia for trial. From this purpose he was 
dissuaded lest it might further alienate the few Virginians in 
the community who were loyal to the Penns. Dunmore in- 
sisted that St. Clair be made to ask pardon for this insult to 
his army, but as the latter never willingly bent his knee to a 
foe, it is likely that he died in old age without having obtain- 
ed his lordship's forgiveness. 

The Penns hesitated to spend money in defense of the 
territory for they knew not where the boundry line would fall, 
and they were anxious to settle it amicably. To this end the 
council appointed James Tilghman and Andrew Allen to con- 
fer with the Virginia authorities. Dunmore treated these 
agents with contempt and the only result was to make Con- 
noll}^ and his army much more oppressive than ever. Fright- 
ened by this reign of terror, the farmers thought it not worth 
while to plant crops in the spring of 1774. and St. Clair was 
face to face with an approaching famine among those whom 
he had undertaken to lead to safety. 

Nor were the people all united in their opposition to Dun- 
more. Among them were hundreds of prominent families 



—11— 

from Virginia, who, having purchased their lands from Dun- 
more, and thmking they were settling in Virginia, were loathe 
to be considered as residents of Pennsylvania. The Quakers 
in the east, the thriftiest people of the Province, would not 
help them, for they were religiously opposed to war and were 
opposed to the Penns whom they regarded as renegades from 
the religion of their revered father, for the sons had embraced 
the religion of the Church of England. The Quakers talked 
of the sinfulness of war, wore broad-brimmed hats, defied 
Lindly Murray and devoted themselves to the acquisition of 
wealth and the enjoyment of the comforts it brought. The 
middle counties had been settled largely by German peasants, 
who, having known little else than servitude in Europe, were 
delighted with their new enjoyment of liberty. They hated 
the idea of military service, for it reminded them of the op- 
pressive armies of Germany from which they had fied. Speak- 
ing only a German tongue, they neither knew nor cared who 
owned the land in the Ohio Valley, so long as they could by 
industry, increase their herds and widen their productive 
acres in peace. 

Benjamin Franklin was the intellectual and political 
leader of the Province. Now the feudalism which had grown 
up among the Penns was extremely obnoxious to him, though 
he saw the danger of the French operations and now of the 
Virginia claims on the Ohio. He therefore opposed any 
administration measure which would add strength to the 
Penns and their feudal tenure. These matters left the de- 
fense against Virginia mostly to a divided settlement, among 
whom the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, the Catholics and the 
German Lutherans predominated, and these were equally 
intolerant of each other. 

St. Clair's greatest difficulty was as a private citizen to 



—12— 

hold the people together and keep the inhabitants from 
leaving their homes and abandoning the western section to 
Virginia. The pioneers were willing to endure the constant 
danger from Indian outbreaks but now with these new diffi- 
culties added, the country was on the verge of being de- 
populated. 

Against all this opposition, almost single-handed, St. 
Clair held the settlers together, and the documentary evi- 
dence indicates, that, but for him and his efiforts. Western 
Pennsylvania would have been abandoned to Virginia. What 
the effect would have been, had this section, with its unnum- 
bered millions of natural wealth been peopled and managed 
by the lassitude of the cavalier rather than by the energy of 
the Scotch-Irish, the reader can easily conceive. When the 
dark clouds of the Revolution began to gather, both Virginia 
and Pennsylvania forgot their personal quarrels and united in 
the common cause against Great Britain. At the close of the 
war the boundary question was settled by arbitration, which 
gave Pennsylvania more than the Penns at one time offered 
to accept. 

THE HANNASTOWN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

When news of the battles of Lexington and Concord 
spread over the country, the whole populace was greatly 
aroused. The inflamable Scotch-Irish of Western Pennsyl- 
vania were promptly up in arms. Four weeks after this first 
war-peal, on May i6th, 1775, a largely attended meeting was 
held in Hannastown, then the largest town in the west, at 
which St. Clair was, at all events, the most prominent man and 
the leading spirit. This convention adopted what has since 



—13- 

been known as the "Hannastown Declaration of Independ- 
ence," a document which will compare favorably with any 
paper yet penned in this country. It is to be found in the 
American Archives, Fourth Series, Vol 2, page 615, and in 
many other publications. It defines the causes of complaint 
on the part of the pioneer, and points out the remedy as 
clearly as the best writings of Thomas Jefferson or Alexander 
fiamilton. Clause after clause of it may be substitued for 
parts of the Great Declaration passed more than a year after- 
wards, and will be read without detection, except on the 
closest scrutiny. It is undobutedly the first Declaration of 
Independence adopted in any of the colonies. 

Nearly all of St. Clair's biographers have attributed its 
authorship solely to him and not without great reason. He 
was, in all probability, the author of the fourth paragraph 
and much of the document is very like his chaste and vigor- 
ous style. The resolutions were certainly prepared by a man 
of education and ability and most likely by one educated 
abroad. They show also an intimate knowledge of military 
life and but few civilians could write in such rich military 
terms, unless from a personal knowledge of the army. Furth- 
ermore, in a letter to Col. Allen, dated at Ticonderoga, Sep- 
tember I. 1776, St. Clair lays down two principles, viz: First, 
that "Independence was not to the interest of America if the 
liberties could be otherwise secured," and, second, "If foreign 
troops were employed to reduce America to absolute submis- 
sion, that independence or any other mode was justifiable." 
Here he clearly enunciates the substance of the third and 
fifth clauses, and also the condition in part, which brought the 
pioneers to armed resistence. 

Yet in a letter to Joseph Shippen concerning the meeting, 
the resolutions, the arming of men, etc., written the day after 



—14— 

he says, "I doubt their utility and am almost as much afraid 
of success in this contest as of being vanquished." And again 
nine days later he wrote to Governor Penn on the same sub- 
ject saying he "got a clause added to it, (the declaration) by 
which they bind themselves to assist the civil magistrates in 
the execution of the laws they have been accustomed to be 
governed by." We scarcely think St. Clair was the sole 
author, for had he been, there would be no need in his getting 
a clause added, nor do we believe he would have drawn a set 
of resolutions, the logical result of which was the proceedings 
"the utility of which he doubted." Yet he was undoubtedly 
the leader of the convention and by intelligence, by culture 
and by military training, was one of the few men of the 
colonies who could pen such a paper. 

IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 

St. Clair's work in the Revolution can be accurately 
traced from the histories of that period. His correspondence 
with the leading men of Boston, Philadelphia and New York, 
shows conclusively, that though he had been an English army 
officer, there was not the least danger of his becoming a Tory, 
but on the contrary that he had most radical views on the im- 
pending difficulty between Great Britain and the Colonies. 
The impartial reader cannot but regard his espousal of the 
American cause as one of the most independent and signifi- 
cant acts in his eventful life. The centuries of royal blood 
in his veins, his every tie of kindred and youthful affiliation, 
his services in the royal army and his long and intimate as- 
sociation with the Penns and other Tories of Philadelphia, 
apparently bound him indissolubly to the English cause. But 
these were as gossamer threads to him when they conflicted 
with the rights of the oppressed colonies. It has been said 



—15— 

of him that, "When he drew his sword he threw away its 
scabbard." 

In 1775 the Indians in the west were very troublesome 
and had repeatedly adopted Pontiac's tactics in making long 
raids on the east. Congress therefore appointed commission- 
ers, Judg-e Wilson, of Pennsylvania, Morris, of New York, 
and Walker, of Virginia, to treat with them. St. Clair, who 
had gained high standing with the tribes was made secretary 
of the commission. The conference was barren of immediate 
results, and St. Clair was appointed to raise an army to 
chastise the Indians in the region of Detroit. They gave 
him no financial aid, but that never mattered with St. Clair. 
He enlisted about four hundred and fifty men who were to 
furnish their own arms, horses, forage and provisions to 
march at once. 

At that time General Benedict Arnold was storming 
Quebec and all interests centered there. When Arnold's ex- 
pedition failed St. Clair went to Philadelphia to urge his pro- 
ject before the Continental Congress. But instead of send- 
ing him and his army to Detroit, he was called into the Revo- 
lution where it was thought he would be of greater use. In 
this way he entered the Great War, entering under the com- 
mission of a colonel in the Continental Army. His first 
assigned duty was to make arrangements and preparations 
for war rather than to actively engage in it. His duties were 
in and around Philadelphia where he recruited, drilled and 
provisioned volunteers. He was forced to advance money 
which was not paid back to him until after the war was 
closed. 

His first duty in the actual field of war was to take six 
full companies to Quebec where Arnold was in dire straits. 
General Montgomery , first in command was killed, and was 



—16- 

succeeded by Arnold, who being severely wounded, was suc- 
ceeded by Thompson after whose early death came General 
Sullivan. It will be remembered that St. Clair had spent 
over a year in the Quebec region under General Wolfe and 
was quite familiar with all points on the St. Lawrence river. 
He suggested a fortification on a point at Three Rivers to 
prevent the British transports from reaching Quebec. His 
plan was adopted and he was appointed to guard the point. 
Sullivan afterwards reinforced St. Clair's army with Thomp- 
son's troops but they were all beaten back to their original 
positions. Though unlooked for misfortunes alone prevented 
their victory, they retired from Canada with colors flying. 

The battle at Three Rivers and the retreat, managed by 
St. Clair, has been the admiration of military writers ever 
since and one of them has considered Three Rivers as one of 
the best contested fields, from a scientific military standpoint, 
among all the battles of the Revolution. No campaign in the 
Great War shows more military genius nor more personal 
heroism. Mr. James M. Swank in his sketch of St. 
Clair says, "In this campaign St. Clair acquitted himself with 
credit in aidmg to save Sullivan's whole army from capture. 
For this service he was appointed a brigadier general." 

St. Clair's army was next at Ticonderoga where on July 
28, 1776, he read to his soldiers the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. In his report he says, "They threw their hats in the air 
and cheered for the United Colonies." 

THE BATTLES OF TRENTON AND PRINCETON. 

In August when he was made a brigadier general he was 
called to Washington's army then in his well managed retreat 
before General Howe across New Jersey. He was now for 



—17- 

the first time under the eye and direct command of the Great 
Chief and fought under him at White Plains. He was with 
the army on the stormy night in December when they cross- 
ed the Delaware on their march to Trenton and in conjunc- 
tion with General Sullivan, commanded the division of the 
army which took the river road from the crossing to Tren- 
ton, Washington and General Nathanael Greene leading the 
other division. He shared, in no small degree, the victory 
over the Hessians and no battle in the Revolution did as much 
to strengthen the cause of the colonies as this. 

It is claimed by all of St. Clair's biographers and also by 
St. Clair himself that he suggested to Washington the move- 
ment of the army which culminated in the victory at Prince- 
ton a few days later. The great historian, George Bancroft, 
labors vainly to prove that this claim is without foundation, 
and without apparent reason, save to glorify Washington. 
Like many writers he seems partial to the Great Chief. He 
bases the theory that Washington conceived this movement, 
on the report of the march, but the report does not cover the 
origin of the plan and there is no authority to refute St. 
Clair's positive statement which is corroborated by a number 
of the staff officers. It is not denied, however, that General 
St. Clair directed the details of the march and that his bri- 
gade, composed of New Hampshire, Connecticut and Massa- 
chusetts troops, with two six pounders, marched at the head 
of the advancing army with Washington. For St. Clair's part 
in these two battles he was made a major general on February 
igth. following, on the recommendation of Washington. It 
may be mentioned in this connection that he was the only 
officer from Pennsylvania who became a major general during 
the Revolution ; others were brevetted when the war closed 
but to him alone came this honor during its continuance. 



—18— 
FORT TICONDEROGA; VICTORY AT SARATOGA. 

The outlook for the Colonial army in the summer of 
1777 was a very gloomy one. The soldiers were but half 
clothed, half fed and almost ready to disband. This condition 
of affairs moved the British to greater efforts, hoping thereby 
to stamp out the rebellion at once. They set about to divide 
the colonies by a line of English fortresses going up the 
Hudson, thence by Lake George and Lake Champlain to the 
St. Lawrence river. General Burgoynes army was already 
in Canada and he was instructed to march south by the lakes 
and unite with St. Henry Clinton's army which was to pass 
up the Hudson from New York. This, we need scarcely 
add, would have hopelessly divided the colonies, and by stop- 
ping all communications between them, would probably have 
compelled our armies to disband. Ticonderoga, the same 
which Ethan Allan had captured , and which Francis Park- 
man calls the "School ground of the American Revolution," 
was then in possession of the Colonists and is situated be- 
tween Lake Champlain and Lake George. The tenure of this 
post by the American army prevented a confluence of Bur- 
goyne's forces marching south, with those of Clinton march- 
ing north. A quarrel between Generals Schuyler and Gates 
necessitated a new commander. Congress, perhaps because 
of St. Clair's newly won laurels, though some of his biograph- 
ers say, to sacrifice him, sent him to take command of Ticon- 
deroga and hold it at all hazzards. He was given two thous- 
and two hundred men in all, a force that was entirely inade- 
quate, though it was probably all that the weak army could 
furnish. 

Many victories in the Revolution were won by taking 
desperate chances, and no one was more willing to make the 



—19- 

sacrifice, with even the slightest hope of success, than St. 
Clair. Burgoyne's armv came down the lake and attacked 
Ticonderoga in June, 1777. Near by was a high, rocky pro- 
montory since called Mount Defiance, which overlooked and 
practically commanded the fort. This was inaccessible to the 
Continental army because of their weakness, and moreover, 
St. Clair's army was too small to occupy and hold Ticonder- 
oga and Mount Defiance both. General Arnold a few months 
before this had asked for not less than twenty thousand men 
to hold it. Burgoyne found that he could not capture Ticon- 
deroga without fortifying Mount Defiance. He therefore, by 
means of ropes and tackle, hoisted cannon to its crest and 
placed there sufficient arms and men to overcome the fort 
below. The French English and American officers had all 
regarded Mount Defiance as inaccessible to heavy artillery, 
but now the top of the mountain bristled with English guns. 

St. Clair and his officers agreed at once that against such 
a fortification even ten thousand men could not hold Ticond- 
eroga and that his army must either retreat or be captured. 
The army retreated the following night going towards Hub- 
bardton and Castleton, thirty miles away. The British fol- 
lowed them and several small engagements ensued in which 
St. Clair lost heavily. But to follow his divided forces Bur- 
goyne was compelled to divide his army. As St. Clair's men 
retreated they blocked the way with deep ditches, destroyed 
bridges, fallen timber, etc., making it still more difficult to 
pursue them. St. Clair's soldiers formed a nucleus to which 
Generals Horatio Gates and Arnold added their forces and 
all under Gates attacked Burgoyne. Clinton's army, with 
provisions, was delayed in its journey up the Hudson, and in 
the meantime the forces under Gates were increased daily by 
hardy volunteers so that in a few weeks the entire army of 



—20— 

Burgoyne, waiting for Clinton's tardy relief, was forced to 
surrender at the battle of Saratoga, though Clinton was then 
less than fifty miles away. Creasy has seen fit to include this 
as one of the Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World's History. 

Reporting the surrender of Ticonderoga and the retreat, 
St. Clair wrote these words : "I knew I could save my reputa- 
tion by sacrificing the army; but were I to do so, I should 
forfeit that which the world could not restore and which it 
cannot take away, the approbation of my own conscience." 
On July 14th, before Burgoyne's victory, he wrote to Con- 
gress, "I have the most sanguine hopes that the progress of 
the enemy will be checked and T may yet have the satisfac- 
tion to experience, that by abandoning a post I have eventu- 
ally saved a state." This proves almost conclusively that St. 
Clair foresaw a brilliant victory over the English and was 
willing to sacrifice himself, if by so doing he could save his 
army from capture and thus assist in bringing about the great 
victory. 

All blame for the loss of Ticonderoga was for a time put 
on St. Clair who explained the matter to Washington and 
Jay, and quitely asked for a court of inquiry. A very able 
one was finally granted with Major General Benjamin Lin- 
coln as president. They heard the evidence and in their find- 
ings entirely exonerated St. Clair "Of all and every charge 
against him with the highest honor." Then the tide turned 
somewhat in his favor. The people saw that as a direct re- 
sult of his surrender, the English army had sustained the 
heaviest loss ever known in America, this, after all their 
preparations and glowing prospects, and that the Colonies 
were yet intact. St. Clair was warmly congratulated by the 
leading men of the nation, but the letter from Lafayette was 
perhaps the most cherished of all. "I cannot tell you," wrote 



—21— 

the eminent French General, "how much my heart was inter- 
ested in anythuig- that happened to you and how much I re- 
joiced, not that you were acquitted, but that your conduct 
was examined." 

St. Clair has been criticised for surrendering the fort be- 
fore he was attacked. His only alternative was to remain as 
General Greene did shortly before at Fort Washington, and 
like Greene, needlessly sacrifice his entire army, which, by 
retreat, might have been saved to the Colonies. Upon several 
occasions, had Washington not retreated before he was at- 
tacked, his army would have been captured. Indeed, one of 
his strongest points as a general was his ability to evade a 
contest and extricate his army, when there could be but one 
result, if he gave battle. 

Let us look further into his reasons for retreating, for the 
facts brought out by the court of inquiry speak very eloquent- 
ly in favor of St. Clair. Burgoyne's army, when he met St. 
Clair, numbered 7,863, while St. Clair had less than 2,200, 
all of whom were ill fed and but half clad. Burgoyne sur- 
rendered 142 heavy guns, while St. Clair had less than 100 
second rate cannon of various sizes and they were served by 
inexperienced men. It is scarcely necessary to defend his re- 
treat in this age of general intelligence. The United States 
Gazette, in speaking of his defense before the court of in- 
quiry said: "His defense on that occasion is still extant and 
exhibits a sample of profound generalship. While the Eng- 
lish language shall be admired it will continue to be an ex- 
ample of martial eloquence." It is easy now to see the wis- 
dom of St. Clair's retreat, rather than to surrender his entire 
army, in which case Burgoyne's defeat could not have been 
brought about. 

After this he was with the army at Brandywine and Val- 



—22— 

ley Forge and was then detailed to organize Pennsylvania 
and New Jersey troops and send them to the front. When 
Arnold turned traitor Washington scarcely knew whom to 
trust, but with implicit confidence, he selected St. Clair to 
take charge of West Point. He was then selected with 
Greene, Lafayette, Clinton, Knox, Stark, etc., as a member 
of the most noted military jury that ever sat in this country 
to try the unfortunate Major Andre. They were selected be- 
cause of their high character both as soldiers and civilians 
and because they were educated in the military history of 
Europe. They reported that Andre should be considered as 
a spy and should suffer death. 

ST. CLAIR AS A STATESMAN, PRESIDENT OF 
CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 

It is usual to consider St. Clair as a military character 
only, while in reality he was one of the statesmen of the 
Revolutionary period and united a very extensive knowledge 
of letters, of history and of the classics, with his military life. 

Shortly after the close of the Revolution he was selected 
as a member of the Executive Council of his state and in 1785 
was elected as a member of Congress. Even in the council 
and in Congress before party lines were drawn, he began to 
take sides and express views afterwards adopted by the 
Federalists. In 1787 he was elected President of Congress, 
the highest office in the government, a position which can be 
compared only with that of President of the United States. 
The latter position was created by the Constitution in 1787, 
which abolished the office of President of Congress. While 
President of Congress he resided in Pottsgro^'e, now Potts- 
town, Pennsylvania. The house in which he resided is yet 
standing:, and as he was then the executive head of the new 



-23— 

nation, the old building has been fondly called the "First 
White house" by the people of Fottstown. 

It was the Congress over which he presided which pro- 
vided for the convention by which the Constitution of the 
United States was formed. 

GOVERNOR OF NORTHWESTERN TERRITORY. 

Under the celebrated Ordinance of 1787, he was appoint- 
ed Governor of the Northwestern I'erritory, the appointment 
being made by Congress. This territory embraced all the 
country belonging to us west of Pennsylvania and north of 
the Ohio river, and now forms the states of Ohio, Indiana, 
Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, which now have a popula- 
tion of nearly twenty millions. His prerogatives as governor 
were very extensive. He was not only the executive officer 
of the territory but the law-giver as well. He appointed all 
judges^ and these in council with himself, had the power to 
make laws for the government of the territory. He erected 
counties and named them, appointed officers, built forts, 
founded and named towns and held treaties with the Indians. 
Going down the Ohio river in 1791, he arrived at Fort Wash- 
ington and around it organized Hamilton county, naming it 
after the great constructive statesman, then Secretary of the 
Treasury. To the town around the fort he gave the name of 
Cincinnati, after the society by that name consisting of offi- 
cers of the Revolution, of which he was president of the 
Pennsylvania division. 

His administration in Ohio territory is too extensive a 
subject to be reviewed in this brief sketch. Governor Nash 
at the Centennial of Ohio's Statehood said, "Our grandest 
glory arises from the fact that we have faithfully kept, during 



—24— 

these loo years, all the precepts of the best law ever formed 
for the government of mankind, the great Ordinance of 1787, 
in making of which St. Clair took an active part." 

In all this new country he again encountered hostile 
Indians who, having been driven westward, were then con- 
stantly committing depredations on the Ohio frontier. Gen- 
eral Josiah Harmar was accordingly sent out in 1790 to sub- 
due them, but his army was badly defeated. In 1791 St. 
Clair was appointed commander-in-chief of the army and vest- 
ed with a corresponding military power in the territory. An 
army of two thousand regular troops was at his disposal, and 
he had authority to increase it as he saw fit, by calling out the 
militia. 

THE BATTLE OF THE WABASH. 

In September, 1791, the army was assembled at Fort 
Washington, now Cincinnati. It was not, by any means an 
ideal army, though there were three regiments of regulars in 
the infantry, two companies in the artillery and one of cav- 
alry. As they journeyed towards the enemy about six hun- 
dred militia joined them, though by St. Clair's proclamation, 
all should have been with them at Cincinnati, and should have 
been subjected to the severest discipline. The march be- 
gan on September 17, and as usual, in new countries, the 
army had to cut roads through the wilderness, which made 
its progress necessarily slow. On the Big Miami river they 
erected Fort Hamilton, some distance farther on they erect- 
ed Fort Washington and still later Fort Jefferson. At each 
post a small garrison was left, for they were nearing the 
Indian country. Shortly after they left Fort Jefferson one 
of the militia regiments deserted bodily. Washington Irving 
in his admirable Life of Washington in referring to these 



—25— 

militia, says, "They were picked and recruited from the worst 
element in Ohio. Enervated by debauchery, idleness, 
drunkenness and by every species of vice it was impossible, 
in so short a time, to fit them for the arduous duties of Indian 
warfare. They were without discipline and even the officers 
were not accustomed to being under a commander." Such 
men were useless in a campaign, yet St. Clair was forced to 
send the First Regiment after the deserters to prvent their 
waylaying the belated provisions, which was their avowed in- 
tention, and of which his men were in urgent need. His ef- 
fective army yet numbered about fourteen hundred and mov- 
ed to a point near the headwaters of the Wabash river, now in 
Mercer county, Ohio. It was supposed that the main body of 
the Miami tribe of Indians was about twelve miles from the 
encampment. Here they meant to entrench themselves and 
build such fortifications as would protect them while they 
awaited the arrival of the First Regiment with the deserting 
militia. They encamped late and weary on November 3rd, 
and the General, with the engineers, immediately laid out 
plans for the proposed "works of defense" which they were to 
erect the day following. 

St. Clair knew that his army was not in proper condition 
to meet the Indians, but the matter was urgent, for, embold- 
ened by Harmar's defeat, the enemy was almost daily com- 
mitting depredations on the settlers. He had learned in the 
Revolution, that a weak army can sometimes overcome a 
strong one, or by desperate effort, grasp victory from defeat. 
There is no doubt but that he couW have conquered the 
enemy, with a reasonable time given to discipline his army, 
but winter was fast approaching, supplies were scarce, the 
sturdy settlers were calling for relief, the government at 
Philadelphia urged him to immediate action. "The Presi- 



—26— 

dent urges you," wrote the Secretary, "by every principle 
that is sacred, to stimulate your exertions in the highest de- 
gree and move as rapidly as the lateness of the season and 
the nature of the case will possibly admit." There was noth- 
ing left for him to do but to go against them at once. 

A short time before the break of day on November 4, the 
General had the reveille sounded, which brought all troops to 
line ready for action. Thus they watched till the sun arose, 
when, there being no sign of danger reported by the outposts, 
the troops were dismissed to get rest and breakfast. But 
they had scarcely disbanded when a scattering volley of rifie 
shots came from the front. The Indians, having found the 
army in battle array, had delayed the attack until it broke 
ranks. At once the drums beat and the officers formed their 
ranks in line. The Indians, with their usual cunning, fired 
first on the militia, which at once fell back in confusion on 
the regulars. They were followed by swarms of Indians some 
of whom ran beyond the first ranks and tomahawked officers 
and soldiers who had been carried back to have their wounds 
dressed. The confusion was terrible. 

St. Clair was suffering from a fever. Irving' says : "The 
veteran St. Clair, unable to mount his horse, was borne 
about on a litter, and preserved his coolness in the midst of 
the peril and disaster, giving his orders with judgment and 
self-possession." By his own suggestion, he was carried to a 
place where the firing seemed heaviest, and where Colonel 
Drake, a Revolutionary officer of great bravery and experi- 
ence, was trying to overcome the confusion and hold his lines 
steady. St. Clair directed them to make a vehement charge 
with bayonets. This at first promised good results, for many 
Indians, concealed in the tall grass, fled in confusion, but the 
soldiers were unable to overtake them. They soon returned 



—27— 

seemingly in increased numbers, and a second bayonet charge 
was followed with the same results. The artillery was prac- 
tically of no use, for the daring Indians killed the men and 
horses before they could render any service against the scat- 
tered and concealed foe. The regulars fought bravely and 
with much more system and effect than one might expect, 
but the confusion spread from the militia till it pervaded all 
the troops, 

Behind trees and bushes and hidden in the tall grass, 
were apparently Indians without number. With their bullets 
came showers of arrows and the wounds from the latter 
seemed more painful and exasperating than gun-shot wounds. 
The soldiers were necessarily more or less in line, and this 
seemed only to aid the Indians in their peculiar style of war- 
fare. The General did not require a litter to carry him from 
place to place, except in the beginning of the contest. When 
the battle raged and his forces began to wane, the excitement 
brought back his strength as though the vigor of his youth 
had been renewed. Eight balls passed through his clothes 
and hat, one of which cut a lock of hair from the side of his 
head. Two horses were killed under him just as he had been 
helped to mount them. For an hour or so, no horse being 
near, he moved about on foot, and surprised all who saw him 
by the agility he displayed. When again well nigh exhaust- 
ed, he was placed on a pack-horse, the only one that could be 
procured, and though he was scarcely able to force the animal 
out of a walk, he rode him till the battle closed. Adjutant 
General Winthrop Sargent, in a private diary wrote particu- 
larly of "St. Clair's coolness and bravery, though debilitated 
by illness." The battle lasted about four hours when there 
was nothing left to do but to retreat and this the army ac- 
complished but with the greatest confusion. Hundreds of 
soldiers threw away their arms and fled towards the fort. 



—28— 

When fourteen hundred men thus fought this infuriated 
mob of savages, struggling for their native land, it seems an 
insult to heroism to have the event forever known in history 
as St. Clair's defeat. It is more fitting to commemorate their 
unrivaled bravery by calling it the Battle of the Wabash. 
Though countless acts of heroism and daring courage, which 
have challenged the praise and admiration of four generations 
and will live as long as any war stories of our border history, 
were performed, yet the result was nevertheless most dis- 
astrous. There were five hundred and ninety-three reported 
killed and two hundred and fourteen wounded. The brave 
general was among the last to leave the field. 

After the result of the battle became known, a bitter feel- 
ing arose throughout the Union against St. Clair. The real 
situation, had it been understood as it is now, would have 
thoroughly defended him against all blame, but the means of 
circulating the true story of the battle were extremely limited 
and most people knew nothing of it except the general result 
and the number of killed and wounded. At St. Clair's request 
therefore a congressional committee was appointed to investi- 
gate the entire affair and report their findings. The investi- 
gation disclosed a most disgraceful neglect in the commissary 
department, over which the commander had no control and 
which alone would have rendered success almost impossible. 
It disclosed also that Captain Slough with a scouting party 
was sent out on the night of the 3rd and that he found Indians 
in large numbers. This he reported to General Butler, who 
said he would report it to the Commander, but he made no 
report whatever. Butler, though a man of great bravery who 
lost his life in this struggle, was disgruntled because of St. 
Clair's appointment over him. It disclosed also that St. Clair 
had ordered Colonel Oldham to take four or five parties out 



—29— 

an hour before daybreak the following morning. Very early 
on the morning of the fourth he sent his adjutant-general to 
see if they had started ; they had not, and then came the 
battle. The committee reported as follows : "The committee 
conceive it but justice to the commander-in-chief to say that 
in their opinion the failure of the late expedition can in no 
respect be imputed to his conduct, either at any time before 
or during the action, but that, as his conduct in all the pre- 
paratory arrangements was marked with peculiar ability and 
zeal, so his conduct during the action furnishes strong testi- 
monies of his coolness and integrity." 

St. Clair resigned and General Anthony Wayne succeed- 
ed him as Commander-in-chief early in 1792. Through Wash- 
ington the former promptly tendered the benefit of his infor- 
mation concerning the army to his successor, whereupon 
President W ashington replied : "Your wishes to afford your 
successor \i\\ the information of which you are capable, al- 
though unnecessary for any personal conviction must be re- 
garded as additional evidence of the goodness of your heart 
and your attachment to your country." 

Both the government and Wayne profited by the early 
lessons in Indian warfare. A well equipped army, more than 
twice as large as St. Clairs, was given to General Wayne. He 
was also given an adequate commissary and was allowed to 
drill his men until they were competent, and to select the sea- 
son of the year that he should march against the enemy. By 
this time, too, the people had awakened to the magnitude of 
the undertaking, just as the English did after Braddock's de- 
feat, and as our own nation did after the first disasters of the 
Civil War. So Wayne was supported by every one, from the 
President down to the humblest citizen. After drilling his 
army for over two years, he marched over the roads which St. 



-30- 

Clair had opened up and in August, 1794, met the Indians at 
Fallen Timbers and completely overwhelmed them. 

St. Clair has been more or less censured for not throwing 
up breastworks on the night of November 3rd, notwithstand- 
ing the fatigued condition of his army. These critics forget 
that an enemy confronted him which did not fight according 
to the rules of civilized warfare. Breastworks, such as an 
army could construct in a night, would have been utterly 
futile against savages who fought like wild animals, and 
against whom the only effectual defense was a stockade or 
other obstruction which they could not surmount. Such were 
the fortifications which St. Clair built on his march from Cin- 
cinnati, but it was impossible to build one in a night's time. 
Bouquet was by far the most successful Indian fighter of his 
day and in his greatest contest and victory at Bushy Run, he 
fought the enemy all afternoon and until night-fall tempor- 
arily ended the battle. He could then have thrown up breast- 
works in the night as a protection against the enemy in the 
more terrible contest which he knew would follow with the 
earliest dawn. Such an idea certainly never entered his mind. 
Like St. Clair, he knew too well the methods of Indian war- 
fare not to realize that such earth works, though potent 
against drilled troops, would have been no protection what- 
ever against his savage enemy; indeed, both commanders 
must have known that breastworks in either instance, would 
have but aided the savages by confining the troops to a posi- 
tion that Avas not in anyway, inaccessible to them. 

No intelligent student of history holds now that St. Clair 
should have been expected to hold Ticonderoga against Bur- 
goyne's army or that his army was properly equipped and 
drilled to meet the Indiana in 1791. In both of these battles 
the highest possible military skill was displayed on the part 



-31- 

of the commander, yet even in our highly educated and con- 
siderate age, there are some who seemingly forget the great 
achievements of his military and civil life, and remember him 
largely in connection with his last battle, thus unjustly 
coupling his name with defeat. In this connection, in his 
sketch of St. Clair, Mr. Swank very aptly observes : 

"Generals cannot always win victories, as illustrated in 
the Battle of Waterloo. In our own countr}-, Washington 
was compelled to surrender to the French and Indians at 
Great Meadows and he was repeatedly defeated during the 
Revolution. McDowell lost the first Bull Run battle, Burn- 
side failed at Fredericksburg, Flooker at Chancellorsville, 
Sherman at Kenesaw Mountain, although these were all good 
soldiers. Grant met with signal defeat on the first day at 
Shiloh and also at Cold Harbor, while Lee lost the battle of 
Antietam and his star set at Gettysburg. St. Clair was not 
defeated because of any lack of generalship or personal brav- 
ery in himself." 

St. Clair was retained as Governor of the Territory until 
the beginning of Thomas Jefferson's administration, in all 
about fifteen years, and was removed by Jefferson in 1802. 
As we have said, he was an ardent Federalist and had un- 
bounded admiration for the centralized power doctrine of 
Alexander Hamilton. Holding such views he was necessarily 
antagonistic to the tenets of Jefferson, whose policies were 
opposed to those of Hamilton. He had moreover advocated 
the re-election of John Adams, whose unpopular administra- 
tion, favoring among other things the deservedly obnoxious 
alien and sedition laws, had elected Jefferson. 

It may have been unfortunate that so pronounced a 
Federalist was appointed to this position for western people 



—32— 

were larg-ely Jeffersonian. The citizens of the Territory were 
anxious to form a state which could be brought about main- 
ly through Jefiferson's friends. Ohio came into the Union 
in 1802, and St. Clair was therefore its first and only Terri- 
torial Governor. 

IN PRIVATE LIFE. 

When St. Clair returned from Ohio he again settled in 
Ligonier Valley and near his residence, built Hermitage 
Furnace, hoping- thus to recuperate his well nigh exhausted 
fortune. For a time he manufactured pigiron and castings, 
the former for Pittsburg market, when the iron industry of 
the city was in its infancy. A flouring mill which he had 
built on his estate before the Revolution and which he gave 
to his neighbors for their use during the war, was now in 
ruins and he rebuilt it. His residence, "Hermitage," was 
about a mile and a half north of Fort Ligonier, now Ligonier, 
and was probably built before 1799, for there is a well handed 
down tradition that Washington sent two expert carpenters, 
who came out on horseback from Mt. Vernon to do the finer 
work. The carpenter work was the admiration of the com- 
mon people and is equal to the best on the old colonial 
houses. It was certainly done by skillful workmen who could 
scarcely have found employment on the frontier in that age. 
In building it he looked forward to the time when he should 
put aside public duties and pass his remaining years in the 
ease and comfort earned by a busy life. The residence is all 
gone now save the parlor, torn down perhaps by the ruthless 
hand of an ignorant iconoclast who cared nothing for its 
hallowed memories. The quaintly devised woodwork, the 
mantle piece and wainscoating of the room remaining, doubt- 
less saved it from destruction. It is now preserved because 



-33- 

of its historic associations. Vying" in stately simplicity of 
design and in rich interior with the woodwork of our best 
homes in modern times, it bids fair to bear down to coming 
generations one of the few splendid specimens of colonial 
architecture in Western Pennsylvania. Near by are the 
crumbling ruins of Hermitas'e Furnace. 



FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES. 

The story of the financial difficulties which so clouded 
his latter years, is not a pleasant one to contemplate. Be- 
sides the 14,000 pounds which came to him by marriage, he 
was the owner of large tracts of lands which he had purchas- 
ed or received by grant from the Penns for services rendered 
them. He also made some good land investments. All his 
property was sold by the sheriff to satisfy his creditors and 
the most lamentable feature of his embarrassment is that his 
debts were nearly all contracted in the interests of the state 
and nation and should have been paid by them and not by 
St. Clair. In a letter to Hon. William B. Giles he says that 
the office of Governor was forced upon him by friends who 
thought it would afford him an opportunity to replenish his 
fortunes, but that it proved otherwise. He writes, "I had 
neither taste nor genius for speculation in land, nor did I con- 
sider it consistent with the office." 

During his last years he presented memorials to the state 
** "legislature and to Congress, asking, not for charity, but for 
a simple reimbursement of the moneys he had expended for 
the public, and not a statement in any of them was ever dis- 
believed or denied. In one of them he explains his situation 
by saying that, when he entered the Revolution he could not 



-34- 

leave his young wife, born and reared in the best of society 
of Boston, alone with her children on an unprotected and 
hostile frontier. This compelled him to sell part of his real 
estate, in Western Pennsylvania, upon some of which he had 
expended large amounts of money, at a great sacrifice. It 
was sold for 2,000 pounds in deferred payments. But the 
purchaser paid him in depreciated Continental currency, so 
that of the 2,000 pounds he received less than one hundred. 
He purchased a house in Pottsgrove near Philadelphia as a 
family residence while he was in the army. On selling this 
he lost the half by the bankruptcy and suicide of the pur- 
chaser. 

In a memorial to the Assembly he says that, beginning 
in 1774 (in Dunmore's War) he supplied nearly all the forts 
and blockhouses in Westmoreland county with arms and 
means of defense at his own expense. To Congress he says 
that in the darkest days of the Revolution, when Washing- 
ton's soldiers were daily deserting and the army rapidly melt- 
ing away because they had not been paid, Washingtin him- 
self applied to him (St. Clair) to save the Pennsylvania line, 
the best organization in the army. He accordingly advanced 
the money for recruiting and for bounty and with the aid of 
Colonel William Butler, the line was saved. To this claim 
the Government actually pleaded the statute of limitations. 

But the indebtedness which directly caused the sale of 
his real estate, was contracted while he was Governor of 
the Territory. Among other duties which he performed there, 
was to act as Indian agent and as such he negotiated several 
important treaties. But the amounts appropriated were not 
generally sufficient to cover the terms of the treaty and rather 
than have it fail, St. Clair advanced the necessary money. 



-35- 

In one treaty he was forced to expend sixteen thousand dol- 
lars while but eight had been set aside for it. When the 
aimy for the campaign of 1791 was assembled at Cincinnati, 
it was found that the appropriation was not sufficient to 
equip it. St. Clair gave his bond for the amount necessary, 
on the express promise of the Secretary of the Treasury that 
it would be repaid. It probably would have been had Hamil- 
ton remained in office, but the new administration was averse 
to making good the amounts expended by the Federalists. 
There was hope, however, while Hamilton lived, for he, bet- 
ter than any other, knew of the justice of the claim. St. 
Clair with no desire whatever to contest the validity of the 
bond, came into the Westmoreland courts and confessed a 
judgment against his real estate for the face of the bond with 
interest, in August, 1803, or $7,042.00. Payments had been 
made on it from time to time by St. Clair so that at the time 
of the sale in 1808, it amounted to $10,632.17. 

His property was sold by the sherifif in 1808-09-10, when 
the embargo had driven all of the money out of the country, 
and, though valued at $50,000, it did not bring more than the 
debt, interest and costs. The residence and furnace were sold 
for $4,000, though the furnace and mill alone had been rented 
to James Hamilton & Co., for $3,000 per year. The first sale 
took place, as the Westmoreland records show, in June, 1808, 
and the last tract was sold on October 15, 1810. His creditors 
did not stop with the sale of his real estate but sold also, all 
of his personal property, save a few articles which he select- 
ed as exempt from levy and sale. Among these was one bed 
and bedding, a few books from his English library, embracing 
his favorite Horace, whose classic beauty of verse he had 
long admired, and a bust of Paul Jones, King of the Seas, 
presented to him and sent by Jones himself from Paris. 



-36- 

LAST DAYS OF POVERTY AND NEGLECT. 

When the General was turned out of house and home by 
these proceedings, he and his family moved to a tract of 
land, which his son Daniel owned on Chestnut Ridge, about 
six miles west from Ligonier. Though the house was little 
more than a log cabin, it was on the State Road leading to 
the west, and here he entertained travelers that he might 
thus earn board for his family. Broken with the storms of 
more than three score years and ten, saddened by the mem- 
ories of the past, denied by ingratitude that which was justly 
due him from his state and nation, he quietly awaited the last 
roll call. 

To a truly altruistic man like St. Clair who had really 
given of his abundance with a profligate hand to the weak 
and destitute, poverty, though gloomy in its aspect, was a 
bright and shining crown of glory which only added to his 
greatness. No one who was capable of appreciating true worth, 
ever came in contact with him, even in his last years, who 
did not recognize at once the presence of a statesman, a 
soldier unacquainted with fear, a scholar in the best sense of 
the term and a patriot pure and unswerving. Read his letter 
to the ladies of New York, who, hearing of his needs, sent 
him a present of four hundred dollars, and compare it with 
our best English letters. We quote but a few lines : 

"To soothe affliction is certainly a happy privilege and is 
the appropriate privilege of the fair sex, and although I feel 
all I can feel for the relief brought to myself, their attention 
to my daughters touches me most. Had, I not met with dis- 
tress, I should not perhaps, have known their worth. Though 
all their prospects in life, and they were once very flattering, 
have been blasted, not a sigh, not a murmur, has been allowed 



—37— 

to escape them in my presence, and all their plans have been 
directed to rendering my reverses less affecting to me ; and 
yet I can truly testify that it is entirely on their account that 
my situation ever gave me a moment's pain." 

The last picture we have of St. Clair refers to a period 
but three years before his death, when he was almost over- 
whelmed with a mountain of sorrow, yet there are few public 
men of our day who would not feel proud to be thus described. 
It is from the pen of Elisha Whittlesly, who, with Joshua R. 
Giddings and James A. Garfield, represented the Ashtabula 
district in Congress fifty-six years. Whittlesly was after- 
wards for many years an auditor of the United States Treas- 
ury, and by a life of association with distinguished men, 
could recognize true greatness. The letter was written to 
Senator Richard Brodhead and is as follows : 

"In 1815 three persons and myself performed a journey 
from Ohio to Connecticut on horseback in the month of May. 
Having understood that General St. Clair kept a small tavern 
on the Ridge east of Greensburg, I proposed that we stop at 
his house and spend the night. He had no grain for our horses, 
and after spending an hour with him in the most agreeable 
and interesting conversation respecting his early knowledge 
of the Northwestern Territory, we took our leave of him 
with deep regret." 

"I never was in the presence of a man that caused me to 
feel the same degree of veneration and esteem. He wore 
a citizens' dress of black, of the Revolution ; his hair was 
clubbed and powdered. When we entered he arose with 
dignity and received us most courteously. His dwelling was 
a common double log house of the western country, that a 
neighborhood would roll up in an afternoon. There lived the 



-38- 

friend and confident of Washington, the ex-Governor of the 
fairest portion of creation. It was in the neighborhood, if not 
in view of a large estate at Ligonier, that he owned at the 
commencement of the Revolution, and which, I have at times 
understood, was sacrificed to promote the success of the 
Revolution. Poverty did not cause him to lose self-respect, 
and were he now living, his personal appearance would com- 
mand universal admiration." 

St. Clair at no time in the war appeared so great as when, 
under adverse circumstances, he tried to save an army or 
prevent its destruction. So it may have been that in the 
poverty of his declining years, his true nobility asserted itself, 
and shone forth all the more brilliantly. With no complaint 
whatever, he readily forgot that the nation had taken the best 
years of his life and much of his property, and now in want, 
another generation of rulers refused to recompense him. One 
sentence from the New York letter above is the key to his 
whole life : "It is entirely on their account that my situation 
ever gave me a moment's pain." He always forgot himself 
when the rights of others or the interests of the state were 
being considered. Perhaps more than any other was he an 
exemplar of the motto of the Society of the Cincinnati, 
"Omnia relinquit servare republicam." 

There, on the mountains, in a rude log cabin, lived the 
personal friend and companion of Washington, Greene, Steu- 
ben, Lafayette, Hamilton, Franklin, W^ayne, Gates and Schuy- 
ler and in no small degree did he share their glory. When 
the Revolution closed he was one of the leading men of the 
new nation, a gentleman, a scholar, a soldier, a statesman. 
His manners were those of the polished society in which his 
earlier days were spent and no adversity could change the 
unvaried courtesy which was part of his nature. His con- 



—39— 

versation was always embellished with wit and wisdom. 
Often was he seen wandering alone over the hills and through 
the wilderness with his hands behind his back and in deep 
thought, like Napoleon on the bleak and lonely island of St. 
Helena. 

In his youth he has been described as being tall and 
graceful, with chestnut brown hair, blue eyes and fair com- 
plexion and as a complete master of all the accomplishments 
of the best society of the age. In old age his form was some- 
what bowed, but his square shoulders, his cleanly shaven 
face and dignified address still remained. His portrait, given 
with this sketch, is from a painting by Charles Wilson Peale, 
the original of which hangs in Independence Hall in Phila- 
delphia, 

Never did the proud old General seek pity or charity. 
On one occasion, he and William Findley, who was then in 
Congress, were talking, perhaps concerning measures for St. 
Clair's reimbursement. Findley was then a man of power 
and wealth while St. Clair was almost in penury Findley, 
with perhaps the kindest feelings, said, "General, I pity your 
case and heartly sympathize with you." Then the old war- 
rior, though bent with the adversities of more than four score 
years, proudly drew himself up and with flashing eyes said, 
"I am sorry sir but I cannot appreciate your S3^mpath3^" At 
another time, toasted at a militia muster by a thoughtless ad- 
mirer, as "the brave, but unfortunate St. Clair," he drew his 
sword in an instant and demanded that the offender retract 
his words. He would not be complimented and commiser- 
ated in a single sentence; his achievements in the service of 
England and America in both war and peace, were deserving 
of all glory without a compromising word of pity or regret. 

On August 30th, 1818, while driving down the mountain 



—40— 

on his way to Youngstown, he probably sustained a paralytic 
stroke, for he fell from his wagon and was found unconscious 
by the road side. Taken to his home he died the day follow- 
ing without regaining consciousness. The citizens of Greens- 
burg called a public meeting at once and adopted resolutions 
of condolence and requested that his family select their ceme- 
tery as his final resting place. This was accordingly done. 
Nineteen days after, his wife, the once accomplished Phoebe 
Bayard, of Boston, who had willingly accepted the hard life 
on the rude frontier with her husband, was laid to rest by 
his side. So they sleep in the old, tree-grown and now 
abandoned cemetery which, for nearly a century has borne 
his name. 

In 1832 a plain monument of sandstone was erected over 
his grave by the Masonic fraternity and its inscription speaks 
most eloquently and truthfully of the neglect of the nation. 
"The earthly remains of Major-General Arthur St. Clair are 
deposited beneath this humble monument, which is erected to 
supply the place of a nobler one due from his country." 

In a wider sense, however. General St. Clair has builded 
for himself, by his life's work, monuments more enduring 
than marble. The progress of Western Pennsylvania, the 
center of commercial industry, a section which he practically 
founded, and over which he first spread the elevating influ- 
ences of civil government, is his monument ; the freedom of 
the nation, to secure which he gave the best years of his life, 
is his monument; the achievement of the Middle West which 
he opened up to civilization and education under the Ordi- 
nance of 1787, five great states, now teeming with nearly 
twenty millions of happy and industrious people, is his 
monument. 

Let him sleep, therefore, if need be, without "the nobler 



—41— 

monument due him from his country," for as long as the 
maples wave above him their graceful branches and yearly 
strew his grave with the golden leaves of autumn ; as long 
as flowers bud and bloom at his feet and the morning songs 
of wild birds fill the air; as long as honor, charity, self-sacri- 
fice and patriotism remain the sweetest of human virtues, so 
long will the name of Arthur vSt. Clair awaken alike the 
proudest and saddest memories of the American people. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



011 699 502 9 



